Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. It's Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week, Tim Stanovik and a Katie Dreifeld in for
Speaker 1: Carol Master this afternoon. Katie, have you tried to make
Speaker 1: a restaurant reservation at your favorite restaurant? I have a
Speaker 1: reservation tomorrow. When did you have to make it? I
Speaker 1: don't know. Joe made it. When do you think you
Speaker 1: mean you had to make it weeks ago? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: I think he made it actually during the weekend. But
Speaker 1: you know, it just wasn't it early. It's earlier than
Speaker 1: we would like to. You're not showing up. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not showing up that day and actually getting a reservation.
Speaker 1: It's at like four four pm or it's a you're go, okay, Well,
Speaker 1: if it's at four forty four, you should still be
Speaker 1: at work for sure, definitely, and I will be so
Speaker 1: obviously we took the ten pm. Okay, sare it us.
Speaker 1: Let's get into the health of the restaurant industry. We're
Speaker 1: really pleased to have back with us. Debbie Sue, she's
Speaker 1: CEO of Open Table, she joins us once again via
Speaker 1: zoom from San Francisco, to have you. Good to have
Speaker 1: you back with us. Katie and I got to speak
Speaker 1: with you just a few months ago. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well and I'm so happy to be here
Speaker 1: with you all again. Well, it's good to have you
Speaker 1: back with us. Last time we spoke, you talked about
Speaker 1: the idea that consumers were returning, diners were returning to
Speaker 1: the platform in droves. UM. What's changed in just a
Speaker 1: few months. Give us a health check of the restaurant industry.
Speaker 1: We are we are continuing to see that that dining
Speaker 1: demand remains really strong. If you look at the year end,
Speaker 1: so for for this entire year, we are approaching on
Speaker 1: nationwide UM pre pandemic levels. We're up versus last year.
Speaker 1: So we can say that dining is back UM or
Speaker 1: that dining has held strong. The holiday season is looking great.
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving UM is usually a good you know, a sign
Speaker 1: of what things are to come during the holiday season,
Speaker 1: and demand was really strong then. So people were just
Speaker 1: seeing that people are continuing to prioritize that dining out
Speaker 1: at at a restaurant experience. Despite all the news we're
Speaker 1: hearing and we're feeling it as well, right about inflation,
Speaker 1: rising costs, um, all that economic turbulence. People are continuing
Speaker 1: to you know, allocate pieces of their household piano to
Speaker 1: the dining out experience. How do you explain that because
Speaker 1: those things are at odds? Yeah, I know, and I
Speaker 1: think you know, um, we're we're still seeing some pent
Speaker 1: up revenge dining. I think as a result of the
Speaker 1: pandemic when many of us were cooped up in our
Speaker 1: houses or apartments for um a long time. So I
Speaker 1: think that is still playing here. Um. I also think
Speaker 1: it's because from many of us, the nature of work
Speaker 1: has changed. Um. Many people work remotely, some people are
Speaker 1: in a hybrid situation where they go into the office
Speaker 1: you know, twice a week as opposed to five times
Speaker 1: a week. And I think people are really craving that
Speaker 1: in person, you know, experience that they're not getting when
Speaker 1: they're just working from home. Um. And so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, dining out at a restaurant is one of
Speaker 1: those ways they can get that. And we're seeing that
Speaker 1: in the data too. We're seeing, for example, uh, pre
Speaker 1: pandemic days, bar seating was the least favorable type of
Speaker 1: the seat that one could book, and right now we're
Speaker 1: seeing people are actually requesting those seats and wanting to
Speaker 1: be in the thick of it all. So I think
Speaker 1: because work is changing for many of us, that that
Speaker 1: has trickled down effects, you know, into dining and our
Speaker 1: behavior as consumers. Um, you know what what it means
Speaker 1: now to to go out to a restaurant, Iffy, let's
Speaker 1: unpack some of those trends. If if the shifting nature
Speaker 1: of work is changing how people are dining out, what
Speaker 1: does that mean in terms of what days that people
Speaker 1: are coming to restaurants, what times, things of those chairs. Yes,
Speaker 1: so we're seeing that Monday's, UM, to your point, are
Speaker 1: so historically Mondays were a very slow time for restaurants
Speaker 1: pre pandemic. Right now, what we're seeing Monday's or the
Speaker 1: weekend after party, it's kind of an extension of the weekend.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing really big increases in dining compared to
Speaker 1: last year up on Monday's. UM. The time is also
Speaker 1: different in terms of the time that people are going
Speaker 1: to reservations. You had said forty five or ten, we're
Speaker 1: actually seeing um, a lot of people dining between four
Speaker 1: and five UM that that time period increased twenty seven,
Speaker 1: a very large increase um compared to pre pandemic time.
Speaker 1: So happy hour is the new dinner. I think it's
Speaker 1: because oftentimes, like if you are working remotely or hybrid um,
Speaker 1: you're commute. You don't have a commute time, right, So
Speaker 1: you could be done with work and you can out
Speaker 1: down you know, your computer and just literally, you know,
Speaker 1: leave your home and go to a restaurant. Debbie, does
Speaker 1: that change? So I've talked about this a bit. I
Speaker 1: don't have any data on this, and I'm hoping you
Speaker 1: can help with this because it's all anecdotal for me.
Speaker 1: But in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, you know, I come
Speaker 1: into work every day because I can't work remotely. But
Speaker 1: if I'm off a day and I'm at at home
Speaker 1: and I'm walking around the neighborhood, it is like packed.
Speaker 1: You know, sandwich shops that are usually packed on a
Speaker 1: week day on a weekend only are packed during the
Speaker 1: week because people are working from home. Do you have
Speaker 1: any data that shows sort of the the epicenter of
Speaker 1: of these areas is kind of shifting a little bit
Speaker 1: because of people's work patterns. Yes, So we in that
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn story or your experience is very similar to
Speaker 1: what we're seeing. UM. You know, during the pandemic, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people moved out of the city proper.
Speaker 1: Uh and and in areas around a big city, UM,
Speaker 1: Brooklyn here could be an example of that, and UM,
Speaker 1: a lot of so we're seeing a lot of dining
Speaker 1: activity happening, you know in Brooklyn versus you know in
Speaker 1: the middle of midtown or Manhattan. UM. We're seeing that
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area here in San Francisco. UM. So
Speaker 1: we're seeing like emergence of kind of these UM areas
Speaker 1: outside of cities really gained and prominence. And I think
Speaker 1: Brooklyn also, like it's a trends, tends to have a
Speaker 1: younger demographic, if I were to guess, like a very
Speaker 1: cool demographics. I don't know if I'm either of those things.
Speaker 1: But thank you, Debby. But you know, it's not surprising.
Speaker 1: It's not surprising to hear that we have. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a big remote workforce out there that you know,
Speaker 1: during lunchtime can go to the sandwich shop down the street.
Speaker 1: So I've been thinking about what you said about people
Speaker 1: actually in some cases requesting to sit at the bar
Speaker 1: because I've never done that in my life. But I
Speaker 1: don't want to sit at the bar. I don't want
Speaker 1: to sit next to people. Okay, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: But in any case, are you seeing that in that
Speaker 1: sort of drive to be in the thick of it
Speaker 1: in the action? Are you seeing that in the dining
Speaker 1: choices that people are making in terms of the types
Speaker 1: of restaurants that they're booking. Absolutely, so we're seeing diners
Speaker 1: really crave that connectivity. So cuisines like Korean barbecue, Hibachi grill,
Speaker 1: Brazilian steakhouse, um, those types of food venues are doing
Speaker 1: very very well because again, unlike you, a lot of
Speaker 1: people want to be in the thick of it. They
Speaker 1: want to be sharing a table with folks they don't
Speaker 1: know and and being in that kind of communal environment
Speaker 1: that's so interesting. Does this hold? We're seeing it hold? Um?
Speaker 1: It's it started up last year and it's continued to
Speaker 1: persist um this year. I really think a lot of
Speaker 1: it is related to the pandemic UM and kind of
Speaker 1: a new post pandemic life with again work changing for
Speaker 1: so many of us. Um that right like it, it
Speaker 1: impacts other other facets of our life. And so I
Speaker 1: mean if theoretically we're here a year from now talking
Speaker 1: about the trends that we saw in what do you
Speaker 1: think what what kind of conversation we're gonna be having. Well,
Speaker 1: I hope we're going to have a similar one in
Speaker 1: terms of dining demand remaining very strong. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: and we watched the data very carefully across the board,
Speaker 1: just because there is so much noise regarding the economy,
Speaker 1: and we hear from restaurant partners how hard it is
Speaker 1: to be running m their restaurants. But the hero of
Speaker 1: the day and the story is that consumers continue to
Speaker 1: prioritize going out and dining at restaurants. Yeah, sorry, thirty
Speaker 1: seconds left. Does that change though in a softening economy?
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone we've spoken to today is planning on session. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: And we're we remain bullish about dining. We think that
Speaker 1: may be the check size will change, but we think
Speaker 1: that people will continue to prioritize connecting with others, whether
Speaker 1: that be family or friends at a meal at a restaurant.
Speaker 1: W S. It's always great to check in with you
Speaker 1: and get a real understanding for what's going on when
Speaker 1: it comes to restaurants in this Economy w is CEO
Speaker 1: at Open Table. You know it as a restaurant booking platform.
Speaker 1: She joined us this afternoon via zoom from San Francisco.